Dune
The Man Who Fell To Earth
Event Horizon
Being John Malkovich
Time Bandits
Twelve Monkeys
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Meh I am probably due a slagging off for my choices and explanation, but...

For me these films assault the senses with the right degree of visual arty fartiness, that fits in with the various tone of the film whether it be fear, terror or comedy, or just good honest pretentious cinema..lol.

It's sad how people have forgotten, or are simply unaware today, what works of art some very old movies are.

Several people are mentioning Ridley Scott movies on here. I wonder if they realise what an influence David Lean's movies were on him?

In Ridley's own words:

The person that probably stopped me in my tracks as a child - because I used to love to go to the cinema - was David Lean with Great Expectations (1946). I thought everything was somehow better than most of the other movies in terms of the way it looked - the way it was dramatized and the way it was photographed. In fact, he was detailed from corner to corner

One is assuming a Movie can be [ a work of ] Art.
I don't think it ever can be.

A work of Art is really one person's imagination transferred to canvas, bronze, wood, marble or photographic paper. A Movie is a story brought to life by various writers, photographers, special effects technicians, assistant directors, 2nd unit directors, all under the eye of a Director.

Millais, Van Gogh, Rodin, and Arbus are Artists, John Ford and Hitchcock are Movie Makers.

One is assuming a Movie can be [ a work of ] Art.
I don't think it ever can be.

A work of Art is really one person's imagination transferred to canvas, bronze, wood, marble or photographic paper. A Movie is a story brought to life by various writers, photographers, special effects technicians, assistant directors, 2nd unit directors, all under the eye of a Director.

Millais, Van Gogh, Rodin, and Arbus are Artists, John Ford and Hitchcock are Movie Makers.

Disagree.

Artists are commonly defined by the medium they work in, even if it's as collaborative a medium as film-making. And film-making is a very good example of collaborative art - even the master auteurs drew on the skills of others to create their vision. There's really no other way.

But if you think film-making is not a true artform because of this, then you may be mistaking the method for the end result - and all art is in the result, not the making.

Art is what's achieved, not how they went about it. And that will always be the case.

It's sad how people have forgotten, or are simply unaware today, what works of art some very old movies are.

Several people are mentioning Ridley Scott movies on here. I wonder if they realise what an influence David Lean's movies were on him?

In Ridley's own words:

The person that probably stopped me in my tracks as a child - because I used to love to go to the cinema - was David Lean with Great Expectations (1946). I thought everything was somehow better than most of the other movies in terms of the way it looked - the way it was dramatized and the way it was photographed. In fact, he was detailed from corner to corner

That is a film that is a work of art.

Yep, I'd agree with that. I included 'Great Expectations' on my Top 10 films of all-time list for this very forum. To my mind, it is David Lean's finest film. A sort of a gothic horror(in places). You can see where Ridley Scott got some of the visual inspiration for 'Alien' in the scenes with Miss Havisham.

Anyway, here is my list of films that I consider to be works of art :-

The Godfather Parts 1 and 2
Chinatown
Mean Streets
Taxi Driver
La Dolce Vita
Pretty much anything by Ingmar Bergman, as I think that he only really made very personal films, particular mention to 'The Seventh Seal' and 'Fanny and Alexander'.
Great Expectations(David Lean's version)
Citizen Kane
The Third Man
Sunset Boulevard
Cabaret
Psycho(Hitchcock's version)
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Ran
Sex, Lies and Videotape
The Player
Nashville
Apocalypse Now
The Conversation
Dog Day Afternoon
Unforgiven

I think that I could probably list more, but those are I think a very strong list.